Peugeot 508 Tuning

"Tuning guide to the best Peugeot 508 modifications."

Replacing the 407 it shares much platform wise with the Citroen C5 the 508 was released in 2010 and later face lifted in 2015.

The car won car of the year in 2011 and best large family car and other awards, so Peugeot had a successful car on their hands.

The 508 is a good project car to have. We see loads of people wasting money on their 508 doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our advice to avoid wasting your money

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for most drivers, is rated as a top priority mod in your 508 tuning project.

We found that most 508 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, -1 to 2, and slight negative camber will often enhance your cornering and handling.

We suggest that you fit motorsport inspired suspension and lower the car by 28mm - 37 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with lowered suspension.

Engine tuning mods.

Don't just look at the peak power figures, you need to see the whole torque curve when determining if a mod is right for you 508.

Following our guidance for tuning your 508 you will make a practical but sporty car that will potentially beat bigger cars.
The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

First generation  Petrol engines

• 1.6 L I4 (petrol)
• 1.8 L i4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L i4 (petrol)
• 2.3 L i4 (petrol)

Diesel engines

• 1.6 L i4 (diesel)
• 2.0 L i4 (diesel)
• 2.2 L i4 (diesel)

Second generation Petrol engines

These came with turbochargers meaning that a tune/remap yields quite impressive power gains. The transmission was also offered as an impressive 8 speed unit (EAT8 instead of the earlier EAT6)

• 1.6 PureTech (180PS) 1,598 cc 180 PS (178 hp) @ 5,500, (184 lb.ft) @ 1,650
• 1.6 PureTech (225PS) 1,598 cc 225 PS (222 hp) @ 5,500, (221 lb.ft) @ 1,900

Diesel engines

• 1.5 BlueHDI (130PS) 1,499 cc 130 PS (128 hp) @ 3,750, (221 lb.ft) @ 1,750
• 1.5 BlueHDI (130PS) 1,499 cc 130 PS (128 hp) @ 3,750, (221 lb.ft) @ 1,750
• 2.0 BlueHDI (160PS) 1,997 cc 160 PS (159 hp) @ 3,750, (295 lb.ft) @ 2,000
• 2.0 BlueHDI (180PS) 1,997 cc 180 PS (179 hp) @ 3,750,(295 lb.ft) @ 2,000

These mods performance kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

Getting the correct grade of sports upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).

Peak power is good on competition cars but for a daily driven car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a brief overview to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance part.A fast road cam is generally one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.

The intake & exhaust durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your motorsport upgrades you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Improving the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Contrary to popular belief there is often a small power gain achieved by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

For most 508 engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of supplying cold air.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional polishing and ported. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. When you heavily modify your 508 you will often find that the standard clutch starts to suffer so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we would do for your 508 are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvementsTurbo engines are just pleading to be Reprogrammed. You will see massive power gains on most modern turbo charged cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and massive modifications for your money.The most impressive power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is generally easier to add a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

Superchargers will give a boost which is correlating to engine speed so is simpler. Alternatively you could perhaps fit water injection to control knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include reducing your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good soft compound tire can really enhance your cars handling. Large 508 alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

For this reason try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the recommended OEM sizes. In all cases we do not recommend going larger than 16 inches.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss 508 options in more detail with our 508 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Peugeot tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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